Chapter Text
A shriek of surprise accompanied by a string of expletives was what broke the silence of the night in an old cemetery located a few kilometers from Mount Nantai, near the small town of Nikkō.
The cause of this disturbance frowned in disgust, before shining a flashlight on his hand and seeing the small bleeding gushing from the back of it. He waited a few seconds before attempting to wiggle his fingers and, when a twinge of pain occurred when he did this, he brought the wound closer to his mouth to stop the bleeding.
“Be quiet, Nakano," a voice murmured urgently, growing louder as his owner approached the site. “The guard is a couple of hundred yards away, but he might be able to hear us from... what are you doing?”
Kei said this last slowly, opening his eyes in confusion as he saw Kou kneeling on the ground, with a pocket knife resting at his sides and quickly withdrawing his wounded hand from his mouth, leaving small blood stains on his lips.
Kou's ears turned red as he was discovered in that position.
“I cut myself with the knife and tripped over one of the graves," he babbled quickly as he stood up to approach his companion, who was carrying a bucket full of water in each hand. “I was looking for you. Give me some water to clean the blood off my hand.”
In response, Nagai stepped back while turning to the left to prevent the opponent from grabbing one of his buckets.
“No way. This is Mr. Hirasawa's water. If you want to wash your hands, the sink is about a hundred meters away.”
Small drops of blood fell to the ground as Kou, with his limbs already frozen by the icy winds that lashed that night, let out an exasperated sigh.
“Oh, come on, man. Don't be like that," he said pleadingly as he looked him in the eye. “I'm doing all the hard work. Cooperate a little.”
“I would have done it if someone wasn't such a coward to go for the water," Kei replied, causing Kou's cheeks to turn red as well.
“Hey, I'm not a coward. It's just that the path between the tombs gets a little confusing in the dark," he replied, pouting as he looked away in embarrassment.
“But if you can see the sink from here...”
“Please Nagai!”
And Kei looked at him stoically for a few seconds, watching as his companion's body shivered from the cold.
“All right, hold out your hand. I guess after all the things you did to him at the safe house, Mr. Hirasawa shouldn't mind if you use some of his water.”
Kou smiled back and extended his injured hand towards him. Kei dipped the wooden ladle a bit into one of the buckets and poured some water into the hand, making the opposite grimaced in disgust at the temperature of the liquid.
“How did you get that wound?” he asked when he finished, looking worriedly at the cut as Kou dried his limb by waving it down quickly.
"This? I found a bunch of weeds growing on the sides of the grave. They are difficult to remove, so I applied more force than usual when removing them with the pocket knife.”
“I told you not to take off your gloves," Kei reminded him, grabbing the buckets again as they both made their way to a grave located at the end of the road.
That Buddhist cemetery, which was located at the foot of a mountain range running north of Tokyo in Tochigi Prefecture, was the place where Mr. Hirasawa's ashes had ended up after he died from his encounter with Sato on the roof of the Forge Security building.
Of the few things they were able to learn after the situation in Japan calmed down, it was that their mentor had been a native of that prefecture, and his remains now lay in the cemetery where his entire family had been buried for generations. However, of all the stone monuments, his was the only one neglected and dirty.
Kei and Kou soon discovered that Mr. Hirasawa's son, whom they had never heard of, and who was responsible for the funeral arrangements, never had a close relationship with his father, distancing himself from him since he was a teenager due to the adult's licit activities. They were never able to build a true family relationship, and when Mr. Hirasawa's death occurred, he only paid for the required funeral services without even showing up for the event.
On the epitaph next to the stone monument, it was difficult to distinguish the words written on it due to its abandonment and having been under the inclement weather changes of the region.
Masato Hirasawa
Jan 23, 1951 - Sept 13, 2012
Just a few weeks ago, Kou set himself the task of searching for the grave of this one to say goodbye properly, and after several days of relentless search he was finally able to locate it, so he went alone to that site to pay his respects, but not before asking Kei uselessly to accompany him.
However, Nagai did not expect his companion to arrive that same night, deeply affected by the neglect of his mentor's grave so, Kei could no longer refuse to pay him a visit, and carrying between the two of them enough cleaning material and several offerings that the man liked, they both took the train from Tokyo to go to that remote site.
Kei kept his head down during the four-hour journey, paranoid that someone on the train might recognize him.
“I had to do it," Kou replied reluctantly when they reached the grave. A pile of weeds lay uprooted at the foot of it, but many more were growing around the tombstone. “They were getting in the way of my fingers.”
Kei stifled a sigh and dipped a wiping cloth he took out of his backpack into the water, while Kou grudgingly bent down to continue his work.
“Hurry up then. From what I saw, the guard makes rounds every two hours.”
“Hey, why doesn't your ghost help us with this?” Kou asked him, craning his neck to look at Kei's black ghost, who stood harmlessly on the side of the road. “Surely his claws would do a better job than this useless dull knife.”
Since Kei had suffered the flood that day when Sato was caught, his ghost could go for hours without disintegrating and incredibly he had become tame and accepted many of the orders Nagai gave him, although sometimes he would let out random comments that left Kou confused and Kei red with anger.
However, its rebellious nature still remained, for after giving them its help, it had taken to following them at a safe distance, deliberately ignoring any comments from Kei as it spouted out embarrassing phrases.
“I'm not going to risk it destroying this place because of one of its psychotic attacks," he muttered, rubbing the cloth hard to remove the damp stains on the epitaph.
“Well, if we ignore the assassination attempt earlier, it has been able to behave all this time," Kou replied, while the ghost looked curiously at the rest of the tombs.
An hour earlier, when they arrived at the entrance to the cemetery, shaded by the darkness of the night, they encountered the inconvenience that the gate was closed with thick chains and that the entire site was surrounded by a thick wall of more than three meters.
“What if we break the lock?" Kou had suggested after they both spent a couple of minutes in silence looking for a way to enter the enclosure. Kei just shook his head.
“Unless you have an extremely powerful bolt cutter hidden among your things, I see no possible way we can break it with the stuff we have.”
Nakano let out the air contained between his cheeks listlessly and leaned his back against the trunk of a nearby tree, gazing with a frown at the entrance to the cemetery.
“Come on, there's got to be something. I didn't sit on my ass on that train for four hours just to have a damn lock stop our plans," he mumbled without taking his eyes off the door. “We can open it, we're both ajin.”
Kei's eyebrows arched in interest.
“What do you suggest?” he asked, and Nakano looked away to meet his eyes. “My ghost is not strong enough to cut through steel.”
Kou's mouth made an uncomfortable grimace.
“Well... we can do that thing you did on the roof of Forge Security,” he began slowly and even made a motion with his right hand to saw off some fingers on his left hand. “We just need something sharp.”
They stood in silence for a few seconds until finally Nagai took a sharp intake of breath and frowned, concentrating on manifesting a high amount of IBM that would shape his ghost. After a few moments, the solid specter materialized between the two of them.
“Wo wo wo! What are you doing?!”
“Your turn," Kei said to Kou, and this one tensed a little when he saw that the ghost also turned to look at him, focusing its attention on him.
“C-Can't you do it?" asked a terrified Nakano, looking at the specter's sharp claws.
“What? No!" Nagai replied in annoyance and his expression only grew angrier as he saw the pleading look on the other man's face. “First of all, you had the brilliant idea to come here in the middle of the night. And besides, you were the one who suggested replicating what happened on Forge's roof. Take charge of your own decisions.”
The ghost slowly began to approach Kou and this one jumped up from his backrest. His tense body seemed ready to escape at any moment.
“That's not what I meant," he mumbled in a rushed voice, backing away to keep his distance from the thing. “You know better than anyone that it's not going to settle for cutting off a few of my fingers. It's going to come after me until it slices my chest open," the look in its pleading eyes connected with Nagai's bored expression. “Please, Kei! It's the only clean jacket I have.”
“Stop," he ordered after a few moments to his ghost, who was about to pounce on Kou, with his hand raised to sink his claws into his body. Nakano gasped, relieved to see that he was heeding his master's orders. “It wasn't a good plan, anyway.”
Now it was Kou's turn to arch his eyebrows in confusion.
“Huh?”
“If we were to break the lock, all we would achieve would be to force the guards to tighten security at this site, making it difficult to enter this place if we were to hypothetically need to return in the future. If they were to place video cameras in strategic locations or increase the number of watchmen, the chances of being caught trying to enter would increase drastically. Also, body exhumers should be no strangers at these sites, so the police response should probably be quicker than normal.”
“But..." Kou tried to reply. “We are not exhumers... we just want to pay our respects to someone who was very important to us.”
“It doesn't matter. If anyone recognizes us or even sees us, we'll have to write off this little adventure and go back to keeping our profiles down for a few weeks. No, we have to be discreet and avoid leaving clues that could give us away.”
Nakano gave a long sigh, dejected at contemplating that possibility.
I got it, no attention," he said, and his eyes scanned the entire room, looking for a place where they could both enter. “Hey, what about climbing the wall? Do you think we can do it?”
The muscle memory in Kei's hands made his fingers twitch violently as he heard the other man's words, but fortunately, Kou's gaze was absorbed in the walls, so he didn't notice his reaction.
“Probably," Kei muttered slowly. Memories of the blood in his mouth and the sound of his phalanges tearing tore through his mind. “But I don't think you'll like that option.”
“Do you have something in mind?”
“Nothing that will do us any good in this situation. As I told you, I prefer stealth and, if possible, I would prefer not to resort to dismembering our bodies again to make our way through. Keep in your mind that any tissue we discard, we will need to collect and carry back to the house for proper destruction, as well as clean up any blood or any DNA evidence we may leave behind.”
Kei's ghost wandered around without paying attention to them, and his metallic sounds were the only thing they listened for a while. The cold wind began to blow, and a brief shiver ran through the bodies of both young men.
“You thought of everything, didn't you?” Kou said after a while. His lower eyelids lifted slightly at the gentle smile he gave Nagai.
A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold made his heart race.
“How about this?” Nakano continued unaware of his reaction and pointed to a nearby tree. “If your ghost doesn't act like a jerk and help me climb up there, I can tie this rope to that thick trunk so you can get up there. Then, we run the end over the wall so we can both climb down to the other side. And when we leave, we just climb it again.”
Kei remained silent, considering the other man's proposal.
“It's not a bad plan,” he said after a few seconds and Kou's smile grew wider. He reached out his hand to Nagai's back and patted him loudly as he celebrated, glad that Nagai had approved of his idea. “But we'll have to be quick. Hey, stop... that's enough!”
“I hope you remember well the rope climbing training we did in the safe house," teased Kou as he patted a very irritated Kei even harder. “I know how slow you are at getting to the top, so I'm going to help you as much as I can, ok?”
Nagai's jaw was stiff from the force with which he clenched his teeth.
“Stop hitting me!”
Kei remained silent, seemingly more focused on his work than paying attention to Kou's words. However, after a few minutes, he let out a sigh of relief as he watched the material he cleaned become lustrous again. His eyes shone with pride.
“Don't let your guard down with it. It's been a violent bastard all its life and I wouldn't be surprised if it went crazy again overnight," Kei confessed, eyeing him warily as he approached the funerary monolith with a scouring pad to remove the mold stains. Nakano muttered an “I know" and finished pulling out the last weed. “Hey asshole, hurry up and get the hell out of here.”
This one, who was carefully running its claws across the rough surface of the stones, stopped dead in its tracks and turned to look at Nagai's face with eerie calmness.
"I told you I don't drink; alcohol irritates my colon."
Now it was the turn of Kei's ears and face to turn red with embarrassment, who bit his lips and preferred to take out his anger by rubbing the tombstone hard, trying to ignore the muffled laughter of Nakano.
And while Nagai murdered the mold with uncontainable rage, Kou arranged and cleaned the sotobas, cleaned the dust from the shelf where the offerings are deposited and removed the remains of cobwebs that covered the holes where the flowers were placed, discovering with a gasp that there were still spiders living there.
“Finally..." Kei muttered wearily, wiping away the beads of sweat with the back of his hand after almost all the mold stains had succumbed to his now extinguished wrath. He stood up awkwardly and both young men looked proudly at their work.
The epitaph glowed in the night light, the tombstone was no longer green by the mildew, the sotobas were once again erect, and at last, one could walk on the ground without the presence of annoying opportunistic plants.
Do you want to do the honors?” Kou asked him excitedly in a whisper, extending the wooden ladle to him as he brought the remaining bucket of clean water towards them.
Pour the water into the grave slowly and carefully. It is an intimate ritual that only family members and loved ones of the deceased can do.
However, in front of the grave there were only two young adults unrelated to each other or Mr. Hirasawa, and who had sneaked in in the middle of the night to do all that, as one of them was one of the most wanted people in the whole country.
“Let's take turns," Kei said, taking the ladle and scooping up some water with it. He directed it to the highest point of the tomb and let the liquid fall gently.
The water slipped quickly, taking with it the dirt and dust that remained lodged between its surface, returning the stone to its dark gray color.
“Hum... you're supposed to say something," Kou murmured to him once his partner handed him back the ladle and Kei pursed his lips upon hearing his words.
“I don't know what to say.”
“It's okay, it's okay. Look, I'll start.”
And now it was his turn to plunge the tool into the water and slowly empty its contents.
“Well... hi, Mr. Hirasawa. It's me, again. Sorry for coming so late this time... and also for pouring cold water on you. We couldn't find anywhere to heat it up. But I didn't come alone this time, though, I was finally able to convince Nagai to come.”
Nakano's hand extended the ladle toward him, and Nagai accepted it with some hesitation.
“Erm... yes, I'm here," Kei confirmed, dipping it back into the bucket. Discomfort seeped into his words as he spoke to his mentor's grave. “Sorry for not coming the first time... my face is still known, and I don't want to draw attention to myself again. I figured you would understand... after all, all of you taught us the importance of stealth and discretion.”
The ladle changed hands once again.
“Oh, talking about that... I'm still looking for the graves of Mr. Suzumura and Mr. Kuroki. That day, Forge Security went into absolute chaos, and no one knew what happened to their bodies. I promise you that I will not give up on your search. But still... if... if you were to see them again... could you tell them that we still remember them?”
Kou's tone of voice became melancholic, and his eyes momentarily lost their sparkle as he watched the last drop of water fall. But after a few seconds, he closed his eyes and shook his head quickly, regaining his cheerful attitude.
“And look, we brought you something... to all of you.”
Kou passed the ladle to Kei and went to his backpacks on the floor to take out three cans of Heineken beer, which he placed on the altar of offerings.
“So, you guys can get back together, and drink like in the old days. Like when you finished training us and headed to the smoking area to drink and relax for a while. Remember that, Kei?”
“Of course I remember," he replied, filling the ladle one last time. The gravel on the ground was completely wet and the whole funeral monument looked clean and solemn. “You and I had to go back to study Mr. Tosaki's plans while they went off to have a good time. We could hear their laughter even from the second floor of the safe house. They were so annoying.
Kei emptied half of the water into one of the crevices located next to the flower holes. The crystal-clear water was able to reflect the fingers of Nagai's hand, covered with thick gloves.
He carefully passed the ladle with water to Nakano, pointing with his chin to the other crevice where he was to deposit the rest of the liquid.
And once the ritual was over, they both put their palms together and bowed their heads in prayer. They did not know how long they remained there, in silence, while they were accompanied in the distance by the chirping of crickets.
But that pleasant silence was finally broken when Kou, clearing his throat, turned to his companion in a hoarse voice.
“I think it's time to leave now, Kei. The guard could pass by here at any moment.”
“Yes," he answered slowly, as if waking from a deep sleep. His eyes were still fixed on the grave. “Just let me return everything I borrowed.”
He was referring to the two buckets of water and the ladle, but when he made the gesture to pick them up, Nakano beat him to it.
“Don't worry, I'll take it. You better get the backpacks and go ahead, ok?”
“Ok.”
And Kou walked away in the direction of the sink, leaving Kei alone by Mr. Hirasawa's grave. He picked up both backpacks with one hand and turned around, intending to go to where his black ghost was lying to leave and wait for Nakano at the place where they had left the rope.
But he couldn't take a single step.
“You know...?” he began, trying to keep his voice steady, even though he had a lump in his throat. “You were wrong that time. You told me to run, that there was nothing to force me to fight... but that wasn't true.”
He turned again; his fists clenched as he took a breath of air in an attempt to bravely face the grave of the man who considered him as his son.
“When I became an ajin, I lost everything. I lost my family, my identity, my nice lifestyle, and the future I had fought so hard for. Fuck, I even lost my status as a human being. Mr. Hirasawa, please tell me... what do you think is the most horrible thing a man can suffer in this life? Be tortured? Be mutilated? Or to die incessantly over and over again?”
He unconsciously approached the tombstone and with each step he took, his legs lost strength, forcing him to hold on to it so tightly that his fingers turned white from the effort. His questions, thrown into the air, were only answered by the faint breeze that poorly stirred his hair.
“No... it's nothing like that... although it's funny if you analyze it. Do you know about the incredible capacity of adaptation that our bodies have? They are able to adapt to pain, to torture, and if you take the consequences of death out of the equation, it is able to adapt to dying over and over again. But if you ask me, I would say that our minds can never adapt to losing our freedom.”
He knelt down slowly. On the ground, his knees were wet from the damp gravel.
“When I arrived at that horrible research center, my existence was reduced to a mere number that they could poke and mutilate if orders from above so desired.”
He clenched his teeth and fists in anger as he remembered the beeping of the monitors and the sound of the machines cutting and defiling his body.
“They took away my identity, my faith in the human race, everything I had believed in until then... they took everything from me," his voice trembled, and he had to swallow saliva. “Except my life. And I thought that was all I had left... a miserable meaningless existence. But then Sato came along and set me free, and I know... I know it! I know he only went after me to use me. But that night when I regained my freedom... I felt fear for the first time in a long time. Afraid of being captured again. Afraid that my head would be cut off and my conscience would die without being able to enjoy the freedom I had regained.”
The courage within him vanished as quickly as it came and he lowered his gaze, unable to hold his head up any longer.
“That's why I didn't run away because I knew that as long as Sato continued with his plans, I could never be completely free. My future would have been reduced to a fearful existence, and you know what? I got sick of being afraid. That's why I stayed.”
He exhaled the air contained in his lungs, feeling relieved to have finally said there that out loud.
“Did Nakano tell you that we won? I'm sure he did. Surely, he told you that we defeated him, and that he and all his allies were locked up in a safe place from where they can never escape. And surely, he told you that your sacrifice was not in vain, that your death was the key piece to defeat him... but I can't lie to you like that.”
He swallowed saliva again, avoiding blinking at all costs so that the tears gathering under his eyes would not fall down his cheeks and looked down, embarrassed by what he was about to say.
“I just pushed him off a cliff, he fell badly into the water and passed out. Heh... put like that it sounds even more anticlimactic, don't you think?” he asked, laughing without a hint of amusement. “We spent so much time preparing and planning a lot of cool strategies so that in the end we just needed gravity to do its damn job. But you died... almost our entire team, Mr. Tosaki and thousands of others died for no good reason. So much time and so many plans... all for nothing.”
He heard whistling in the distance. Nakano was not foolish enough to give away his presence like that, so it must be the cemetery guard on his rounds. It wouldn't be long before he reached that area, so he stood again and in one swift movement, wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Oh, right... the day before yesterday was Christmas. Merry belated Christmas.”
He walked quickly away from there in the direction of the entrance, and as he passed by his ghost, he waved his hand for him to follow, which obediently complied with his command by following him with silent steps.
They walked among the tombs, taking special care not to step on or desecrate any of them with their footsteps while Kei was lost in thought. However, after advancing a few meters in total silence, he realized that he no longer heard the footsteps of his ghost.
He turned back worried that it had strayed off the path and that its curiosity would cause a noisy scene, but it had only stopped halfway down the path, with the palm of its right hand extended forward and watching curiously as a snowflake fell slowly toward its limb.
Kei looked up, confirming his fears as he saw the dark sky covered with thick clouds and suddenly became aware of the low fog that had been hanging all day and the tiny ice crystals that covered the surfaces of all the tombs. It was going to snow mercilessly that night.
“Hey, what are you doing, moron? Throw that away and get off your ass at once," he growled at his ghost, running off to join Nakano as quickly as possible.
“So much time and so many plans... all for nothing,” his ghost repeated in a deadpan voice, running as fast as he did.
Kei bit his tongue hard to keep from screaming at it right there.
The snow fell mercilessly on their heads once they jumped to the other side of the wall and the black ghost finally vanished. Kei let out a sigh of relief, because the snow began to accumulate on top of the entity's head, and shoulders and their footsteps left footprints in the snow on the ground, making it a very difficult scene to explain if they ran into anyone else.
“How far do we have to walk to get to the station?” Nakano asked him, rubbing his arms vigorously to keep his body warm.
“Approximately ten kilometers," Nagai replied apathetically without taking his eyes off the road, watching for any unusual signs that could be dangerous for them.
“Phew, are you serious? We're going to freeze before we can get there. Let me call a cab.”
“No, Nakano," Kei replied, shaking his head to shake off the snow without slackening his steady pace.
“Oh, come on Nagai! No one will recognize you. Stop being so paranoid, dude.”
Kei finally stopped and turned to look at his companion, who was trying to hail a cab from his cell phone with his fumbling fingers wrapped in thick gloves, while his bushy eyebrows drew together in disgust at the poor signal reception on that side of the mountain.
“Nakano, think for once in your life. Even if you manage to find reception in this weather, what do you think a cab driver will think when he sees two young men coming out of a cemetery at this hour with their clothes dirty and full of dirt? Huh?”
Kou's lips opened and closed, searching futilely for an answer to that until finally, he let out a tired sigh.
“Do you really want to walk ten kilometers in this weather?” he asked him despondently, brushing the snow off his shoulders as he gave him a pleading look.
Kei sighed as well, buttoning every last button on his coat, and looking at Kou with a dejected expression.
“Let's keep walking. Besides, it's not like we could freeze to death.”
“So... are you one of those people who hate Christmas, and all these days?" Nakano asked him suddenly between gasps, after an hour in perfect silence.
Kei rolled his eyes, disgusted that the placid calm had been broken by the other man. They had walked almost eight kilometers, following the course of the river to stay away from the streets of the small town as they saw in the distance the Christmas lights and decorations that the houses possessed.
“What? No, what makes you believe that?” Kei replied, with some indignation.
“Well... two days ago, you stayed in your room all day surrounded by books while typing nonstop on your computer. If that's not the worst way to spend a Christmas, then I can't think of any other way.”
Kei's red face, flushed to the ears from the intense cold of the snow, grimaced in disgust as he listened to the words Kou said to him.
“I was working, genius. We're up to our necks in debt and you know some extra cash wouldn't hurt.”
The days Kei was not working with Kou at the construction company, he used his time to solve problems and assignments that desperate students requested in exchange for money on tutoring platforms.
“I know, I know; and I'm not saying it's not great that you help a bunch of strangers to cheat..." Nakano told him with a sneer, making Kei give him a murderous glare. “But did you really have to spend all day doing that? I found you in exactly the same position I left you in when I left in the morning. Did you even eat properly that day?”
“Yes mom, I ate well. I ate all the vegetables and I did all my homework..." Kei mumbled in disgust, rolling his eyes. He had hoped the other man would bite his tongue and shut up for a while, but it seemed his luck had run out that day. Kou continued speaking.
“Very funny, dumbass. I'm just saying you could have put your books aside and enjoyed the day. There was food in the fridge and the cable was paid for. You could have watched something fun on TV, or you could have played in the snow for a while...or, I don't know... you could have gone outside and watched the kids caroling in the street.”
“Carol... what? What idyllic TV series did you get that crap from, Nakano? We live outside Tokyo, not in Charlie fucking Brown's town.”
Kou just rolled his eyes at Kei's reply, pausing his steps for a few moments to rub his hands together and warm them with his breath.
“That could only be said by a person who hates Christmas.”
“And what about you?” Kei countered, turning to stare at him. "You worked all day on Christmas. That doesn't sound very Christmassy of you.”
Nakano's eyebrows arched in disgust. He even stopped rubbing his hands together and resumed his walk, shoving them into the pockets of his jacket.
“What are you getting at? I was assigned those days at work, don't blame me.”
“Oh, come on! You always ask for that day to go to work. Even your coworkers told me that since they've known you, you've never asked for a break at Christmas.”
Nakano opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find a satisfactory enough answer to counterattack. However, after a while he let out a sigh and turned to Kei with an embarrassed pout.
“Shut up, at least I'm not the weirdo who spends his Christmas doing homework.”
Whatever Kei's response to that provocation died in his throat, for just a few steps away from arriving at the Nikkō train station, they both saw a large sign posted at the entrance of the establishment, which read as follows:
Due to the maintenance of the train tracks, our night service will be suspended until December 28th, resuming its activities at 9:00 am.
Thank you for your comprehension.
A groan of displeasure came out of Kei's mouth, as their plan was to take the last train of the day to Utsunomiya station and, once there, take another train to downtown Tokyo. However, with this abrupt change of plans, they would have to wait at least eleven hours in the outdoors until the station opened in the morning.
“I'm sure you feel like a fool for ignoring me when I told you to bring your thick jacket," Kou mocked him, giving him a mischievous grin as he strutted beside him proudly displaying the huge jacket he was wearing, while Kei was only covered by a modest overcoat.
“Shut up already!”